


All My Troubles, All My Fears

by magickmoons



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, Episode Tag, Episode: s04e17 Absolute Power, Episode: s04e18 The Light, First Time, Fuck Or Die, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Off-World, Wordcount: 5.000-10.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-23
Updated: 2012-10-23
Packaged: 2017-11-16 21:08:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/543821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magickmoons/pseuds/magickmoons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"So three weeks in a palace by the beach?" Daniel's quest for something to do in the aftermath of their addiction to the Light leads to potentially disastrous consequences for both him and Jack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All My Troubles, All My Fears

**Author's Note:**

  * For [campylobacter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/campylobacter/gifts).



> Depending on how stringent your definition is, this could fall under dub-con, in that their brains are pretty well messed up between the addiction and the withdrawal. 
> 
> Title from Sarah McLachlan's Push
> 
> Written for Campylobacter  
> Two (2) Requirements:  
> 1\. episode-related/episode tag/missing scene  
> 2\. AU acceptable  
> Optional Request: action/adventure  
> Restriction #1: no beagles  
> Restriction #2: no Mary Sue/Gary Stu

The whine and light of the ring transport faded as Jack flipped the safety off and looked around the dimly lit room. He could feel Daniel at his back, tense and alert.

“Daniel?” Jack said quietly, his head pivoting between the two doors sliding open to either side of them.

“Yeah?”

“What did you do?”

There was a pause, and when Daniel answered, Jack could hear the smirk in his voice. “Actually, Jack, it was you this time. The panel I just put in the pedestal - that dial in the center probably triggered the rings. You were, um, fiddling with it.”

Damn. He was right. Jack winced. “Okay, I’ll cop to that. Just... ring us back now.” He felt Daniel take a step forward and stop.

“Uh, how?” The amusement was gone from his voice.

Jack took a more thorough look at the other half of the room. No control panel. In fact, the room was pretty much empty except for a twin of the pedestal Daniel had discovered in the goa’uld pleasure palace, minus the inset panel. He keyed his radio.

“Carter, come in.”

The silence of her complete lack of response was broken by a faint noise drifting into the room from one of the open doorways. They both turned to stare at the doorway but the noise didn’t repeat. It was still enough to send Jack’s defensive instincts into overdrive. He nodded at the pedestal. “The controls must be inside that thing then. You look at it while I check this place out.”

Daniel stood staring at him for a minute, face blank. Then he scowled and turned toward the pedestal, muttering, “Yeah, ‘cause I look so much like Sam.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Daniel whirled around, his raised voice echoing eerily. “Like I know what’s what in that thing. I’m not going to do you any good here, Jack. I just...” He stopped suddenly and pressed the heel of his hand against his forehead and gently shook his head. “Crap. I’m sorry. Of course I’ll look at it. Just...” He waved his hand vaguely.

Jack fought the impulse to take a step forward, to rest his hand on Daniel’s shoulder, to try to offer some comfort or reassurance. Daniel had been withdrawn and reclusive for the duration of their nearly two weeks here as they weaned themselves off the effects of the machine. In particular, Daniel seemed to have been avoiding him. Jack hadn’t been inclined to press the issue. Daniel had been through too much lately and while the extreme nature of the incident on his balcony was directly attributable to withdrawal, Jack did not doubt the truth of the underlying issues, whatever they were. He cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“Look, I think it’s pretty obvious that wherever we are, we’re out of range of the... thing.” He traced some random shape in the air that was obviously supposed to represent the machine that was messing with their brains. Daniel gave him a wan smile. “So, deep breaths, count to ten, all that jazz, and let’s just get the hell back.”

He got a nod in response. “Okay, then, I’m heading down that way first. Be back in ten minutes, tops.” He stayed a moment longer to watch Daniel kneel down and start examining the base of the pedestal, a determined expression on his face.

A couple of steps out from the room, it became apparent that they were underground. The hallway sloped slightly upward and it appeared to turn about 200 feet down; a faint glow of what could be daylight shone from around the corner. There were a couple of rooms off the corridor, although neither showed any signs of recent use. Jack kept an eye out for anything that might contain the missing panel, but aside from a couple of empty shelves and a bed in one room, there was nothing.

He reached the turn in the hall and eased around the corner to see a clear shot to outside. He headed back to check the other side. He passed quietly through the pedestal room, not wanting to interrupt any potential progress. A casual observance noted Daniel’s hunched shoulders and slight squint - classic Daniel headache signs.

Jack could feel his own headache coming on, but was much more worried about Daniel. He paused in the opposite doorway as a wave of fear washed over him, images of Daniel on the balcony, in the infirmary, the feel of Daniel’s limp weight as he rushed the two of them through the wormhole. He reminded himself that it was just the withdrawal. But if he didn’t Daniel out of here in time...

“Jack?” He looked over to see Daniel staring at him with concern. “You okay?”

He concentrated on stilling the tremors he could feel running down his arms. “Yeah, fine. You?”

“The same.” Daniel’s stare was challenging now. _I’ll admit it if you will._

“Yeah,” Jack muttered and headed through the second doorway. This side definitely leaned toward ‘tunnel’ rather than corridor. The walls were still rough-hewn stone, lighting was sparse, and the air was close and heavy. His toe nudged something and when he crouched down, he saw a scattering of bones belonging to some type of small-ish animal.

Drawing his sidearm, he continued down the winding tunnel for another few minutes. There were no rooms or intersecting passages and the lights became even less closely placed. He was just about to turn back when a scratching noise ahead stopped his movement. Harsh, snuffling sounds mixed with whines and continued scratching. Jack knew that sound: predators picking up a scent.

He quietly turned around, automatically avoiding the small piles of bones, moving quickly and silently. A minute later, a series of eerie howls echoed down the tunnel. Jack broke into a run and skidded into the room to find Daniel sitting against the wall.

“Did you find anything?” he asked.

Daniel looked up and blinked in surprise to see Jack standing right in front of him. “Um... Oh! Well, it says here...”

“Aht! Can you get us out of here?” Daniel looked ready to launch into an ‘If, then, maybe’ response, so Jack amended his question. “Right now?”

“No.”

“Okay. On your feet. We’re going that-a-way.” He was pulling Daniel up even before he got his feet under him and they stumbled a little as Jack yanked them toward the far door. Daniel’s protests and questions got lost under the noises from the tunnel, and Jack knew the instant Daniel made the connection, when he stopped questioning and started flat out running.

They skidded around the corner and were heading for the exit, which looked a lot farther away than Jack remembered.

“Stop!” Daniel yelled, and grabbed Jack’s sleeve. Before Jack could demand an explanation, the sound of shifting stone drew his attention to where a large section of the floor was retracting away from them, just before the exit. He looked back at Daniel who was looking down at the floor.

“Shit, shit, shit! There’s a trigger here. I stepped on it.”

It sounded like the animals were nearing the pedestal room. “Leave it, Daniel.” They cautiously made their way to the edge of the newly formed chasm. Daniel leaned forward trying to see how deep it went.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Jack’s heart was beating wildly as he pulled Daniel back from the edge.

A flash of anger lit his blue eyes before he took a deep breath, controlling his reaction. He stayed put. “Looking for a way out.” He glanced back down the hall. “Before the welcoming committee arrives.”

Jack followed his glance and swore under his breath. “Yeah. Okay.” He surveyed the pit, motioning to Daniel to stay near the wall. He knew that his reaction was exaggerated, but he didn’t much care at this point. “It’s too deep to climb down, too far to jump.”

“Jack, I found the controls.” Jack looked back to find Daniel pointing across the empty space. A panel was set into the stone near the archway. “There’s nothing on this side.”

Motion at the corner caught Jack’s eye as a large wolf-like creature bounded into view. It slowed when it saw them, approaching cautiously, as its companions joined it. Daniel drew his own gun and stood next to Jack. “We’re not going to be able to hold them off too long,” he commented.

Jack knelt and began feeling along the floor. “Don’t let them get within leaping distance,” he said.

Daniel kept his eyes on the approaching animals. They seemed to be in no particular hurry, but were advancing steadily. “Jack, whatever you’re hoping for, it kind of needs to happen soon.”

Jack gave a little satisfied grunt as his hand closed on a loose rock. “Got it.” He stood up, turned toward the entrance, and launched the stone right at the control panel. The not-quite-wolves stopped as the stone floor began to grind back into place, then one of them began running full out toward them. Daniel squeezed the trigger as it sailed through the air and it fell motionless a few feet in front of them. Growls filled the tunnel.

Jack had been watching the progress of the floor and decided it was going to have to be close enough. “Daniel, we’re going to have to jump. You go first. As soon as you get across, start retracting it again.”

“Jack.”

“I’ll be right behind you. Go!”

Jack watched out of the corner of his eye as Daniel took a running start and leaped across, rolling a little awkwardly as he landed on the approaching stone. Firing a few shots into the pack that now realized their dinner was escaping kept them at bay just long enough for him make his own jump. Daniel grabbed his hand and helped him step up onto the earthen floor as the floor disappeared once again.

They stood there for a minute, looking at the snarling, pacing animals on the other side.

Jack blew out a breath. “Come on, let’s see what’s out there.”

They emerged into brilliant daylight, shielding their eyes, and regretting the fact that they hadn’t had their sunglasses with them when they got caught in the rings. Jack tried again to raise Carter on the radio with no luck.

Daniel shook his head. “We’re too far away. Look at the sun. It’s probably mid-day here; it was going on dinner time when we... left.”

Jack stomach growled. “You had to mention dinner,” he groused. They were about halfway up the rocky side of a large hill, with no trees or plants in sight. No water either. And withdrawal symptoms already making themselves known. He walked over to an outcropping and sank down in the shaded area underneath. Daniel sat next to him.

“At least we’re not in there with those things,” he commented.

Daniel winced. “About that...”

Jack groaned. “What?”

“We’re going to need to get back in there.”

Of course they did. “Why?”

“Well, as far as I can tell, this is part of some type of challenge, or game. Maybe something like Roman gladiators. Humans would be sent through and you have to survive both the natural obstacles and the withdrawal long enough to find the missing piece and get it back in place. Once we do that, it should notify the original device and it’ll ring us back.”

“Gladiators?” Jack shifted uncomfortably as visions of Daniel in leather, sweat sheened and victorious, sent a surge of lust through him. He had no idea about the others, but his time on this planet found him hornier than he’d been since his teens. Probably neuro-something, but he’d be damned before he asked the doc about it. But he’d been having a series of extremely vivid and pleasurable dreams starring Daniel (and he’d bet pretty much anything that Daniel as gladiator would make an appearance in the next one). Not that dreaming about Daniel was anything new, but usually he was safe at home and alone, not sharing a room with him.

Wrenching his mind back to the rest of Daniel’s explanation, he nodded. “Okay, so let’s find this thing first. Then we’ll worry about getting back in.”

A thought struck him. “Hey, where’d you find the first one?”

Daniel answered quietly, head tilted forward as he stretched his neck. “A grotto by the beach.”

“I don’t remember a grotto in spitting distance of the palace.” Carter had very clearly marked off the perimeter within which they could safely move about. It wasn’t a large area and Jack had walked it all several times.

“Yeah, well...” Jack watched Daniel purposefully avoiding sitting back, avoiding looking at him. 

“Why do you do that? You can’t go three goddam weeks without risking your life?” Jack was quivering with tension as he grabbed Daniel’s shoulder and angled him so that he had to look up. “You didn’t even think to mention that you were doing this? What if you’d collapsed out there? We wouldn’t have known... wouldn’t have been able to....” He let go of Daniel and threw himself back against the rockface. “Christ! What the hell were you thinking?”

Daniel’s eyes were shuttered, keeping Jack out the way he had all too often lately, even before the damn Light. He’d gotten too good at locking it all away, focusing on the mission. Good enough that Jack hadn’t even realized that his best friend was falling apart and was using everything he’d taught to keep it to himself.

“Daniel,” he whispered.

He bristled but answered anyway. “I was... bored.”

“Bored?” Jack repeated. “You have over two weeks in a palace filled ceiling to floor with writing in a brand spanking new dialect and no one nagging you to finish up, and you were bored?”

Daniel shrugged. “Well, the material is actually kind of repetitive.”

Jack motioned for Daniel to continue. Daniel rolled his eyes in his best This should be obvious even to you manner. “It’s a pleasure palace,” he said slowly.

“And?” Jack responded.

“Oh for god’s sake, Jack, it’s porn! Floor to ceiling goa’uld porn!”

Well, that was disturbing on several levels. Jack saw Daniel watching his reaction and played up a leer. “Porn, you say? Lots of scantily clad servant girls and powerful... snakes?” Yep, that was definitely one of the disturbing thoughts.

“Not so much, no.”

“What then?”

“They seem to be be kind of focused on same-sex relations. You wouldn’t be interested.”

Jack stilled at Daniel’s casual assumption. If this wasn’t so absolutely the wrong moment, that was the perfect opening - _Actually, Daniel, I’d be very interested_. Six little words that could make or break them.

“So, we have to find the panel thingy?” he asked instead.

“Yeah,” Daniel answered. His hand was shaking when he pointed up the slope. “Might be in one of those caves up there.”

It would take a couple of hours to hike up there, barring any further setbacks. “How long do you think we have?” he asked. “Before it gets really bad?”

“Longer than we would have if we hadn’t already been reducing the output of the machine.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe a day? Two?”

So, waiting for the SGC to be able to send a team through to look for them was out of the question. Jack pushed himself up off the ground. “Okay, then. Let’s get a move on.”

They slowly made their way up the hill. It took longer than Jack’s estimate as they had to backtrack a few times when they ran across deep ravines cut across the hill’s surface. Dusk had settled as they started examining the third cave. They had stopped speaking about an hour earlier, agreeing that it was better just to avoid any arguments at this point.

Jack was tired, like he’d almost never felt before. His head was pounding and he was alternating between chills and sweats already. Daniel seemed to be in worse shape, starkly pale in the reddish light of sunset, and no longer able to hide his labored breathing. They paused at the entrance to the cave. Daniel swept a hand out toward the entrance. _After you._

Jack took a step inside and smiled. “It’s here,” he called back to Daniel. While Daniel examined the panel to make sure that it was what they were looking for, Jack watched the sun sink below the horizon. They weren’t making it back down tonight.

“Okay, we stay here tonight and head back at dawn. I’ll take first watch.” His mood seemed to darken as he watched the last rays of light fade. He turned back into the cave to find Daniel curled up, shivering, holding himself as tightly as he could. He knelt down next to him.

“Cold?” he asked.

Daniel grunted something that sounded affirmative, so Jack sat back and hauled Daniel to a seated position. He draped an arm around him, pulling him in tightly to share body heat. After a few minutes, he felt Daniel fall asleep, and he allowed his hand to run up and down his arm gently, reassuring himself that Daniel was right there.

Jack couldn’t bring himself to wake Daniel, didn’t think he could get any sleep anyway, so he stood both watches himself. The sky outside had just begun to lighten when Daniel jerked awake with a hoarse yell. Jack had been walking around to keep himself alert, but was at Daniel’s side in two steps.

Daniel’s eyes were cold and cruel. “You!” he snarled. “What are you doing?” He blinked quickly as he looked around and processed where he was. “Jack?” He started to reach a hand out but pulled it back, rubbing at his face instead.

“It’s me.”

Daniel stared at him intently, his eyes filled with sadness and regret. Then he laughed, a tinge of hysteria setting Jack on edge. “Dreams teach,” he muttered before starting to sit up and stretch his legs.

 _Dreams sometimes teach. I am teaching him._ Daniel had told them almost nothing about what had happened in the dream Shifu used to teach him. Jack felt a surge of anger at the idea that Daniel was still reliving whatever crappy mindfuck of a lesson the kid and Oma had cooked up.

Before Jack could say anything, Daniel held up a hand wearily. “Don’t even ask, Jack. Please.”

Well, crap. “‘kay. You ready to go?”

“Sure. You think of any bright ideas on how to get us back into the room?”

Jack pursed his lips. “Not so much, no. But there’s time.” Jack forced a smile to his face as he watched Daniel slowly stand, a hand on the wall to steady himself. He wasn’t honestly sure they’d be able to make it all the way back down, but he’d keep that to himself for now.

They started out slowly. Jack insisted on carrying the panel. Daniel walked along in a daze, head turning this way and that, but without the running commentary Jack had come to rely on. He loved the sound of Daniel’s voice, especially the excited, mile-a-minute, new-discovery voice. It took Jack a second to realize that he had also spaced out and that Daniel was actually talking to him.

“...over there. I know I saw something.” And Daniel was off, scrambling up a line of boulders and then dropping out of sight.

“Daniel!” Jack roared and started after him. As he slid down the other side of the topmost boulder, he found Daniel standing in a cleared area, exuding an odd mixture of satisfaction combating depression.

Jack looked at the circular pattern on the ground around Daniel, then scanned the surrounding rock, nodding when he spied the ring transport control panel. “Any chance these’ll take us home?”

Daniel sighed. “I doubt it. But I bet they’ll get us into the nearer room. If we’re lucky, the wolves won’t be there; we might have time to get that in place...” He staggered a bit, then abruptly sank into himself until he was sitting. “Maybe now would be a good time.”

They ringed into the pedestal room. Jack did a quick 360 and was grateful to find no animals present, although he didn’t think their arrival would go unnoticed for long.

“Daniel, what do I have to do?”

Daniel blinked blearily up at him, not even trying to stand. “Put the panel in the inset on the pedestal.”

“What? That’s it?”

“Think so. Then get your ass back over here before the rings activate.”

Jack looked at the pedestal and was lifting the piece into place when a soft growl from the hall caught his attention. “God, I hope you’re right about this, Daniel.” One of the wolf-animals appeared in the doorway. He sat the panel onto the pedestal and could feel a slight spark of energy when the two pieces met. Suddenly, the animal yelped and backed away from the doorway, turning tail and running. He looked back at the pedestal. “That was a nice surprise. Guess that means you’re working.”

He quickly stepped back next to Daniel within the ring perimeter and waited.

And waited.

“Uh, Daniel, why are we still here?” he asked as calmly as circumstances allowed.

Daniel sank down until he was lying on the floor. He closed his eyes and laughed weakly. “Not a game then. A punishment.”

“What?”

“Nothing we can do. This is it. It’s over.” Jack wasn’t even sure that it was him that Daniel was talking to anymore. He could have been having an entire conversation in his head. Jack knelt next to him and grabbed his wrist. Daniel’s pulse was racing, his skin clammy.

“Daniel!” he barked. “Stay with me.”

“Can’t, Jack. It won’t...” Daniel shook his head weakly.

Jack watched him with growing agitation. Why the hell was he just giving up? He wanted to shock him out of it, to shake him, to hit him, to...

Without giving any more thought to it, not even a brief check in with his list of Reasons Why Hitting on Daniel Is a Bad Idea, he slid his hand up Daniel’s arm to cup the back of his head, steadying him as Jack’s lips found his, channeling not only the fear and frustration of the last few hours, but the need and desire that had grown over the last several years. He was so shocked by his own actions, lost in the overwhelming sensation of Daniel’s feel and scent right up against him, that it took him a few seconds to recognize that Daniel had begun to kiss him back, weakly at first, just a slight firming of his mouth, but quickly progressing to small nips and increasing pressure against Jack’s.

Daniel’s hand crept up to grip Jack’s supporting arm and Jack’s arousal spiked when he felt Daniel’s tongue slowly tracing his lips. Jack opened his mouth to Daniel and he heard a soft moan as their tongues met and explored. His arm was shaking, overloaded from the physical pleasure of deep, moist kisses mixing with the emotional ecstasy of knowing that it was him drawing those wonderful sounds from Daniel. He eased farther down till he was laying right next to Daniel.

He kissed his way along Daniel’s jaw and down his neck, tasted skin beginning to warm again, felt his carotid pulse under his tongue. Jack’s free hand was roaming, relishing the feel of his fingers moving through Daniel’s hair, down his temple, his cheek, randomly exploring until he suddenly felt soft flesh beneath his fingers as he worked Daniel’s t-shirt out from beneath his waistband. Daniel moaned and pushed up against Jack’s fingers as they splayed across his lower abdomen.

Jack smoothed his hand across Daniel’s skin, feeling the reaction of the muscles beneath as they tensed and quivered. Slowly, he moved his hand downward, feeling the cotton briefs pulled tight against Daniel’s hard penis, a small damp spot already present. Biting his lip against his own groan, he traced the rigid flesh through the cotton with his fingers, rubbing small circles along the ridge of the glans, and finally laying his whole hand against him.

Daniel tensed and drew in a deep, shuddering breath. He said something, but Jack couldn’t make sense of the words. Jack stilled, trying to control his own breathing, waiting to see what Daniel was trying to say.

He looked up to find Daniel looking at him. His eyes were still a little glassy, but they were open and that was a very good thing. In fact, Jack thought as he withdrew his hand delicately from Daniel’s pants, that was the point of this whole thing. So.

Daniel spoke, his voice nearly breathless and somewhat choked. “Don’t you even think of fucking stopping now."

Jack suddenly felt Daniel’s hand cross his to fumble with the zipper. He was making desperate sounds as he tried to open his pants one-handed, the other trapped between the two of them.

“Shhh, let me,” Jack whispered, feathering more kisses across Daniel’s jaw and back to his lips as he nudged Daniel’s hand out of the way. Daniel was already impatiently wriggling his briefs down as Jack finished undoing his pants.

“Yesss,” Daniel breathed as Jack stroked his bare penis, making a loose ring of two fingers and his thumb. “More.” Jack closed his entire fist around Daniel at the same time he threw a leg across, snugging himself close up against Daniel’s thigh. Every time Daniel thrust himself up into Jack’s hand, his thigh dragged across Jack’s cock. Jack felt the beginnings of his own orgasm as Daniel’s movements sped up. He locked his lips on Daniel’s, breathing in his gasping yell at the same time he felt the coiled heat in his balls release in a nearly unrelenting spasm of pleasure. Daniel pulsed in his hand, thrust a few more times and then lay still. Jack pulled back just enough to get his face buried against Daniel’s neck, noting the slight difference in the scent of his skin now, still idly running his fingers lightly along Daniel’s softening cock, tracing patterns in the now-cooling wetness.

A few minutes went by and Daniel showed no sign of moving. “Daniel?”

Daniel answered with a soft, contented purr of a sound. Jack pulled his head back and looked around at the still empty room. He hated to bring Daniel back to reality, but they had to start working on a plan B. He pulled himself to his feet, dropped his jacket and pulled off his t-shirt. With his jacket back on for warmth, he used his shirt to gently clean Daniel up, then tucked him back in, pulled his briefs up and closed his pants. All the while, Daniel continued to make that satisfied hum. Jack took a moment to savor the knowledge that he had done that, as he set about stripping off his pants and briefs, cleaning up, and pulling the pants back on. T-shirt and wet briefs were folded and shoved in pockets.

“Daniel, we’ve got to...”

He was interrupted by the rising sound of the rings getting ready to activate. Dropping to his knees, he pulled Daniel to sitting, making sure they were both safely within the circle. When the rings disappeared, he looked around and heaved a sigh of relief.

“We’re back.”

He noticed that Daniel’s breathing was already returning to normal as he helped him to lie back on the floor. As Jack prepared to stand up, he heard Teal’c’s voice. “Major Carter, they have returned. I believe Daniel Jackson requires medical assistance.”

Jack decided to stay seated for the time being and let his team do their jobs. “Teal’c, can’t tell you how good it is to see you, buddy.”

“You are a welcome sight as well, O’Neill.”

Running boot steps outside the room announced Carter’s arrival. Daniel opened his eyes for a minute and managed a brief, “Hi guys,” before falling back to sleep. Then they were settling Daniel into bed, Jack gave a brief report to the general via the gate before he too was sent to sleep. Their remaining days on the planet afforded them little privacy - both Teal’c and Carter had decided that the two of them couldn’t be trusted not to disappear again if left unsupervised.

So it wasn’t until they’d returned to Earth that Jack got a chance to speak to Daniel privately. By tacit agreement, their encounter had been left out of both of their mission reports, but Jack needed to check in to see how Daniel was handling it, if he even remembered any of it.

So, one evening, he dropped by Daniel’s lab where he was prepping for an assignment with SG-11, over Jack’s strenuous objections. Jack leaned against the door frame for a minute, watching Daniel work. He cleared his throat.

“You got a minute?”

Daniel looked up eagerly. “Yeah, hey. I was studying that device and I think I finally figured out why it took so long to ring us back. The dial is a kind of a timer. I think it’s the final challenge; maybe something like Russian Roulette. Once you activate the pedestal, you still have to wait out the final length of time. I just can’t tell if it’s chosen by chance, or set by the goa’uld, or....”

“Fascinating. But I really wanted to talk to you about, you know.” Jack perched on the edge of Daniel’s desk and waved his hand between them.

“Oh.” Daniel nodded and looked expectantly at Jack.

“Just wanted to make sure we’re... okay.”

Daniel suddenly found a driving need to rearrange his notepads on his desk. “Yeah. I mean, uh, yeah. You made a tactical decision, a very creative one to be sure, and it worked.”

“We could call it that.”

“I mean, how you knew it would work, I’m not sure; I thought I’d covered my tracks pretty well. But maybe that’s what you wanted to talk... Wait, call it what?”

“A tactical decision.”

“Wasn’t it?” Daniel looked at him questioningly.

Jack took a deep breath. “Daniel, that was probably the least tactical, most emotional decision I’ve made in the field. But that’s an issue for another discussion. Now, if I’m hearing what I think I’m hearing, I think I’d like to move this conversation out of the SGC.”

“Wow.” Daniel stacked his notebooks to the side of his and switched off his lamp. “Really?” he asked as he grabbed his jacket from the back of chair and headed for the door.

“Oh yeah.”


End file.
